“Were I to begin by telling you all the regret I had
at not finding you in London, and at being obliged to leave it before your
return, this very handsome sheet of paper, which I intend to cover with more
important and interesting matters, would be entirely occupied by such a
Jeremiade as could only be equalled by Jeremiah himself. I
will therefore waive that subject, only assuring you that I hope to be in
London next spring, but have much warmer hopes of seeing you here in summer. I
hope Bath has been of service; if not so much as you expected, try easy
exercise in a northward direction, and make proof of the virtues of the Tweed
and Yarrow. We have been here these two days, and I have been quite rejoiced to
find all my dogs, and horses, and sheep, and cows, and two cottages full of
peasants and their children, and all my other stock, human and animal, in great
good health—we want nothing but Mrs
Ellis and you to be the strangers within our gates, and our
establishment would be complete on the patriarchal plan. I took possession of
my new office on my return. The duty is very simple, consisting chiefly in
signing my name; and as I have five colleagues, I am not obliged

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LIFE OF SIR WALTER SCOTT.

to do duty except in turn, so my task is a very easy one,
as my name is very short.

“My principal companion in this solitude is John Dryden. After all, there are some
passages in his translations from Ovid and
Juvenal that will hardly bear
reprinting, unless I would have the Bishop of
London and the whole corps of Methodists about my ears. I wish
you would look at the passages I mean. One is from the fourth book of Lucretius; the other from
Ovid’s Instructions to his Mistress. They are
not only double-entendres, but good plain single-entendres—not only broad, but
long, and as coarse as the mainsail of a first-rate. What to make of them I
know not; but I fear that, without absolutely gelding the bard, it will be
indispensable to circumcise him a little by leaving out some of the most
obnoxious lines. Do pray look at the poems and decide for me. Have you seen my
friend Tom Thomson, who is just now in
London? He has, I believe, the advantage of knowing you, and I hope you will
meet, as he understands more of old books, old laws, and old history than any
man in Scotland. He has lately received an appointment under the Lord Register
of Scotland, which puts all our records under his immediate inspection and
control, and I expect many valuable discoveries to be the consequence of his
investigation, if he escapes being smothered in the cloud of dust which his
researches will certainly raise about his ears. I sent your card instantly to
Jeffrey, from whom you had doubtless
a suitable answer.* I saw the venerable economist and antiquary, Macpherson, when in London, and was quite
delighted with the simplicity and kindness of his

manners. He is exactly like one of the
old Scotchmen whom I remember twenty years ago, before so close a union had
taken place between Edinburgh and London. The mail-coach and the Berwick smacks
have done more than the Union in altering our national character, sometimes for
the better and sometimes for the worse.

“I met with your friend, Mr Canning, in town, and claimed his acquaintance as a friend
of yours, and had my claim allowed; also Mr
Frere, both delightful companions, far too good for politics,
and for winning and losing places. When I say I was more pleased with their
society than I thought had been possible on so short an acquaintance, I pay
them a very trifling compliment and myself a very great one. I had also the
honour of dining with a fair friend of yours at Blackheath, an honour which I
shall very long remember. She is an enchanting princess, who dwells in an enchanted palace, and I cannot help
thinking that her prince must labour under
some malignant spell when he denies himself her society. The very Prince of the
Black Isles, whose bottom was marble, would have made an effort to transport
himself to Montague House. From all this you will understand I was at Montague
House.

“I am quite delighted at the interest you take in
poor Lord Melville. I suppose they are
determined to hunt him down. Indeed, the result of his trial must be ruin from
the expense, even supposing him to be honourably acquitted. Will you, when you
have time to write, let me know how that matter is likely to turn. I am deeply
interested in it; and the reports here are so various, that one knows not what
to trust to. Even the common rumour of London is generally more authentic than
the ‘from good authority’ of Edinburgh. Besides, I am now in the
wilds (alas! I cannot say woods and wilds),

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LIFE OF SIR WALTER SCOTT.

and hear little of what passes. Charlotte joins me in a thousand kind remembrances to Mrs Ellis; and I am ever yours most truly,

George Canning (1770-1827)
Tory statesman; he was foreign minister (1807-1809) and prime minister (1827); a
supporter of Greek independence and Catholic emancipation.

Queen Caroline of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel (1768-1821)
Married the Prince of Wales in 1795 and separated in 1796; her husband instituted
unsuccessful divorce proceedings in 1820 when she refused to surrender her rights as
queen.

John Dryden (1631-1700)
English poet laureate, dramatist, and critic; author of Of Dramatick
Poesie (1667), Absalom and Achitophel (1681), Alexander's Feast; or the Power of Musique (1697), The Works of Virgil translated into English Verse (1697), and Fables (1700).

Henry Dundas, first viscount Melville (1742-1811)
Scottish politician, president of the board of control (1793-1801), secretary of war
(1794-1801); first lord of the Admiralty (1804-05).

Anne Ellis [née Parker] (1773 c.-1862)
The daughter of Admiral Sir Peter Parker; in 1800 she married the antiquary George Ellis
of Sunninghill.

George Ellis (1753-1815)
English antiquary and critic, editor of Specimens of Early English
Poets (1790), friend of Walter Scott.

John Hookham Frere (1769-1846)
English diplomat and poet; educated at Eton and Cambridge, he was envoy to Lisbon
(1800-02) and Madrid (1802-04, 1808-09); with Canning conducted the The
Anti-Jacobin (1797-98); author of Prospectus and Specimen of an
intended National Work, by William and Robert Whistlecraft (1817, 1818).

Francis Jeffrey, Lord Jeffrey (1773-1850)
Scottish barrister, Whig MP, and co-founder and editor of the Edinburgh
Review (1802-29). As a reviewer he was the implacable foe of the Lake School of
poetry.

David Macpherson (1746-1816)
Scottish antiquary and economoist educated at Edinburgh University; he was a friend of
Joseph Ritson and George Chalmers.

Ovid (43 BC-17 AD c.)
Roman poet famous for his erotic Art of Love and his mythological
poem, The Metamorphoses.

Beilby Porteus, bishop of London (1731-1809)
English divine; his Cambridge prize-poem Death: a Poetical Essay
(1759) was frequently reprinted. He was bishop of Chester (1776-87) and bishop of London
(1787-1809).